Concordia Captain's earlier escapades

[PASSENGERES]

UK Daily Mail online gives this pretty hair raising story. Costa wasn't his first grounding of a cruise ship. Hope this website gives the full story.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2108790/Costa-Concordia-officers-took-drugs-duty-molested-women-staff.html#ixzz1o3mohnwj

[cmdchiefthom]

Wow, that sort of puts a whole other cloud over what it takes to get a Captain fired as a Costa captain:eek:

[JJPacer]

Given the way the Concordia Captain acted on that terrible night and afterwards, it's no surprise he has a history of previous incidents and total lack of judgment. This type of person always has skeletons in the closet. It's a real shame that he was left in command, after such serious incidents and allegations. There will certainly be questions why those who kept him in command, did so. The people on that ship deserved better.

[sail7seas]

I heard that on cable news and was speechless.

One has to wonder about the choices Costa made.

This whole story keeps getting worse.

 

 

[sevenseasnomad]

Several years ago DH & I considered taking a Costa cruise. We called our TA who quickly said her agency did not recommend Costa. If we insisted on booking, she'd do it, but only with severe reservations. Since we trust her judgment, we abandoned the idea, went with Holland America & have sailed happily ever since on 5 HAL cruises with 3 more booked.

[RedmondCruiser]

For Costa this is going to be death by a thousand cuts. The bad press is not going to stop. They still have the trial, the salvage efforts and the lawsuits still coming. The bleeding is not going to stop. Italian captains are going to find it more difficult to find employment. Its all sad but given todays need for eye witness news its not going to stop unless something more sensational comes to light.

[awboater]

Strange coincidence that Capt. Smith ran into a destroyer while commanding another ship, before he took command of the Titanic.

 

A lot of times, captains are relieved from command when they run into things. If both Capt Smith and Capt Schettino would have been fired after their first crashes, the cruise industry would have a much better track record.

 

Perhaps that should be a new industry wide regulation - one accident and you are out.

[PathfinderEss]

Perhaps that should be a new industry wide regulation - one accident and you are out.

I always thought that was the case, one accident and they were out, but apparently not.

[dot73]

And here is another story from Daily Mail. Apparently, Capt Coward forgot his glasses and couldn't see properly the night of the accident. Who knows how correct some of these stories are as the Daily Mail sometimes resembles the National Enquirer.

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2109791/Captain-coward-wasn-t-wearing-glasses-night-Costa-Concordia-sank-properly.html

[iancal]

If it is really 'one accident and you are out', should the Captain of the Veendam who recently ran the ship into a stationary crane in a South Americab port loose his rank or just be transferred to another ship???

[KirkNC]

Wow, what a story. Sounds like a ticking time bomb. This really makes Costa look bad.

[mountainmare]

We have actually sailed on the Concordia-- in 2005 to Greece Turkey and Egypt. We picked this cruise because it was the only cruiseline doing this itinerary in the winter and we really thought the weather would be better in these hot climates then.

We absolutely loved the cruise!! It was a different captain (I looked it up) but one thing that I thought was neat --at the time--was that we did "sight see" during the cruise to wave at little islands. We waved to some little Greek Isles and I remember a very excited announcement that the weather was good for a drive by to the back of Stromboli so we could salute the little village there. At the time we loved that--but after the Concordia disaster we have different thoughts. As a passenger it never occured to us that with all the technology available today that a Captain wouldn't know that he was driving the ship unto the rocks.

That being said we mourn the loss of life and the loss of a beautiful ship. We still prefer HAL but it was fun to be on a ship where Joe Farcus was able to go wild with design and to actually know that you were in a different country (not in that American bubble) while traveling.